Research Assistant, University of Mannheim. She contributed an article on the Spiegel affair to SAGE Publications’ Encyclopedia of Political Communication (2008), and a version of this article was used for the Britannica entry on this topic.

scandal in 1962, involving the weekly newsmagazine Der Spiegel and the West German government, that erupted after the magazine published an article about the country’s defense forces, evoking a harsh response from the federal authorities—particularly from Defense Minister Franz Josef Strauss, who would later be forced to resign over his actions. The scandal marked the first time that the post-World War II West German government acted in such an extreme manner against the press. The incident elicited a strong show of support for Der Spiegel from domestic and international media as well as the public, who were galvanized to demonstrate against the government’s actions. In early October 1962 Der Spiegel published an article that included details about the performance of West Germany’s defense forces during a recent North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) exercise and a NATO commander’s assessment that found the West German forces to be only partially ready to defend the country. The...